Just a few notes from my adventures as a writer and a children's librarian.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Jump off a Cliff (part 2)

(read part 1, first)I have to admit, I heard the same lecture at Vermont that the 'Through the Tollbooth' writers did (or else that faculty member uses this example every few years) and I heard the sound of over a hundred writers gasping. Maybe it was just my own intake of breath, but it seemed loud -- as if the whole room had done it.

Get your first draft written downand then --Hit the DELETE key?(gasp)

How brave.How foolish.Are you certain you will remember enough of what you wrote to be able to recreate it?If you delete it -- it's gone -- For-ev-er.

And yet.And yet....And yet, how many times have you been unable to find a file and had to recreate what you had done?Misplaced a paper?Woke up in the middle of the night with a thought/ wrote it down/ and were unable to read it in the morning?Delete.You had to recreate it.

Did you decide that your second try might have been a tiny bit better than your first attempt? And, since you weren't locked into that first version, you were free to improve/ expand/ etc.I'm just rambling here.